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Monday, July 1, 2013

Book Review: Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend: A Novel by Matthew Dicks

Oddly, this book was exactly what the title says it is. Budo is an imaginary friend to Max. And he's telling us his story.

Budo is lucky in a lot of respects. Max is very concrete, so Budo looks just like a human (unlike some imaginary friends who look like a puppy or a fairy or a popsicle stick or a paper doll.) Also Budo is still here even though Max is ten. Most imaginary friends don't last past kindergarten. But Max needs Budo. Max doesn't have any real friends after all, and he doesn't get along well with everything in his world. Especially not with Tommy, the bully at his school. And then, something goes wrong. Horribly, terribly wrong. And Budo is the only person who can help Max. But Budo can't help Max. Yet he must figure out how.

I really don't want to say anymore and risk a big spoiler, so suffice it to say at this point I really couldn't put the book down. Before, I was thoroughly enjoying it. The book is sweet, wildly creative, and very thoughtful, but once the plot twist kicked in, it also became thrilling, edge-of-my-seat nail-biting exciting, and I did think about staying up all night to finish it. While I didn't do that, I did dream about the book which is bizarrely rare for me, so you can see the book really got into my head. Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend is a novel I want to run out and stick in everyone's hand. I am rarely evangelical about a title, instead trying to tailor recommendations to the recipient, but this time I just want to say everyone should read this. It's truly wonderful. And is a must-read (and would make a great gift) for any teacher, particularly one gifted and caring like the fabulous Mrs. Gosk. Mr. Dicks is a teacher in real life and works with a star teacher Mrs. Gosk and put her in his book! What a tribute.